Watch the Belle Game Trip the Hell Out in a Desert to Find Their 70s Selves in "Yuh" Video

Terrence Malick, where you at?

The opening frames of The Belle Game’s video for their song “Yuh” are calm, almost eerily so. It shifts into a few seconds of a hectic and colourful mess that features band member’s Andrea Lo and Katrina Jones running around before sharp synths and an icy beat cue up and soundtrack the two who are ostensibly lost in the desert. It’s an incredibly danceable song—and an even more so warped and mesmerizing video—despite it largely being about isolation and the familiarity of withdrawing into oneself. The desert is an apropos spot as one-half of the Vancouver band sing and physically dance or run off the frustration of loneliness. The Belle Game seem to be a musical kaleidoscope; pulling and putting their own vision on the brightest lights of indie rock in Canada. Lo’s vocals ebb and flow—much like a lot of their indie rock influences—from soft to severe as the music builds in tandem with the lyrics. “Yuh” is produced by Dave Hamelin—formerly of The Stills—and executive produced by indie rock royalty, Kevin Drew. The band have been quiet in the last couple of years since their debut record Ritual Tradition Habit came out in 2013 but the dreamy fuzz synth pop on “Yuh” is an intriguing indicator of things to potentially come.

The group will be going on tour this fall, too. Watch the video below and read our interview with Lo about the band's inspiration for the video, as well as where you can see them live:

Noisey: “Yuh” feels like the narrator is grappling with going back to familiarity and that not actually being a good thing. How does the video explore that theme? Andrea Lo: With the song being about an unexplainable draw towards experiences of antagonism, alienation, and eventually numbed isolation, you can see how this is played out through the choice of setting and the relationship between Katrina and I. "Feel like I know yuh" speaks to the familiarity and unhealthy attraction towards ways of which we have been unconsciously conditioned. "And I know that I get it from you" references the hereditary nature of behaviour and perspective that is carried through a family line. You could say that through the video, Katrina acts as the familiarities that I'm not willing to leave behind despite its detriment on me.

There’s a point where you're singing “like I know yuh” in this desert setting and she looks very lonesome. Also, the video goes from day to night, which feels a bit lonely, too. Is the physical space, how wide open it is, connected to what’s being sung? Most definitely. In choosing the landscapes, we were hoping to visually portray the feelings of isolation and alienation that one can have even when amongst and with others. In addition, it speaks to the wide feeling of emptiness, even numbness, that one can have when their emotions and spirit have run dry.

This is the band's first single since Ritual Tradition Habit, which came out in 2013. Coming off a bit of a break, what can we expect going forward with your new work? Can we expect anything at all?! It's hard to say! A lot of the past two years has involved us redefining our relationship to sound as a group and as individuals, and this experimentation may never stop, especially in our live sets. We've learned to play and relax more, which is valuable and (in our opinion) comes through the sounds that we will be delivering with our new album. I guess what we could tell you in the meantime is, expect more fun, play, honesty and authenticity to come from us in the future.